CelticWomanForum.com

On Christmas Eve German TV station ZDF broadcasted a Christmas Show in which our lovely ladies made an appearance. They sang O Tannenbaum with MaiC on Méav's high notes and Éabha doing Lisa L's part.
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/hauptnavigation/sendung-verpasst#/beitrag/video/2599250/%22Heiligabend-mit-Carmen-Nebel%22 (Skip to min 57:50)

updated the link

Here's a YouTube link to the girls' part!
https://youtu.be/vZDGsmeRwgM (https://youtu.be/vZDGsmeRwgM)

Is it just me or are Mairead C's verse's lyrics slightly different from Meav's original lyrics? I'm not an expert in that language by any means, but it sounded very different.

Yes, the lyrics are different indeed :)

Méav's version says:
O Tannenbaum, rimani sempre verde
In freddo ed in tempesta, la luce tua sempre sta

which means:
O Tannenbaum, you always remain green
Through cold and storm, your light is always there

MaiC's version says:
O Tannenbaum, risplendi nella notte
Le luci tue scintillano, come le stelle brillano

which means:
O Tannenbaum, you shine in the night
Your lights shine, like stars they shine

(yep, we have three different words - actually even more -  to say"shine" in Italian :) )

I have to say that Méav's Italian is quite good. The only flaw in her version is that "tempesta" is pronounced with a different accent than hers, but that's mostly because of the song's melody. Mairead C, on the other hand, has made a few mistakes: Firstly, she said "skitillano" while the correct way to say it is "shintillano". Secondly, "brillano" has to be said with a very strong "R", like spanish people would do (Méav uses a very good R in her version, listen to that and you'll get what I mean), instead of the english/american R she made, but this second mistake is less important than the first - that one actually makes the word hard to recognize even for an Italian.

Hope this helped ;)

  Thank  you  for  your  time  and  effort  Excaliber.   :)   It  doesn't  surprise  me  about Meav   and  Italian .    8)   It  seems that  whatever  language  she  sings  in it  is  almost  spot  on. German  speakers  have  said her  German  is  very  good  and  the  same with  her  French so  our  French  members  say .  our  Sweet  Lady  Meav  seems  to a have  a  knack  for  languages  in  general.  

I suppose it comes naturally when you are trained in a classical and operatic way, just like Méav did :)

Méav's pronunciation is differentlanguages is generally very good. Mai C has a classical training too, though, so I don't think that's the reason.

As for the parts of Mai C and Éabha - I said in another thread I would have switched it. Mai C has a decent enough German pronunciation and her voice would have suited the first verse better. Éabha's singing was "interrupted" in its flow because she was definitely uncomfortable singing in German and I think Italian would have worked better for her. Also, Mai C sounded to metallic singing Italian, something that seems better in German. Both (especially Éabha) didn't seem to happy singing that song. Susan was the only one who was content and enjoying it.

Méav is much more experienced, though :)

As for Mairead's Italian, even in "Nella Fantasia" it's not exceptional so I actually assume that maybe she doesn't like this language very much so it's harder for her to master it. Chloe's diction, though not perfect, was still better. Same for Hayley, not perfect but a little better.

She certainly is.

Well, that doesn't mean she doesn't like Italian- I assume she simply doesn't have a particular talent for it. Éabha had a very clear pronunciation when singing German, but she seemed extremely uncomfortable singing German. Lisa L speaks German (though her pronunciation is hardly better - still very good!) and seems more comfortable. Éabha definitely copied Lisa's pronunciation. She had the same tone to it - and made the same mistakes. Few mistakes, but definitely the same. "Sommerzeit", for example, was turned into "Zommerzeit". Ah, well, actually the other way round from an English point of view. The German Z is like TS while the S is either sharp like an English S or soft like an English Z. Sommerzeit is pronounced with a soft S. It would be less of a mistake if one said it with a sharp S. A Z is definitely wrong which is, of course, not a problem. I just thought it was interesting to see Éabha do exactly the same when singing it, because it seemed to me to be a particular peculiarity of Lisa Lambe, which means that Éabha most likely didn't listen to anyone else singing it, but directly sang exactly what Lisa did. I think that's actually really cute.
Hayley's German prounciation is almost impossible to understand for a German, but, oddly enough, she seems comfortable. She sings her way through the song, it sounds like a made up fantasy language, and everyone is happy ;D

I must admit this comment surprised me! Again, I don't speak Italian, but I thought Mairead's prononuciation in Nella was the same as Chloe's but that she simply changed the tempo for the words a bit.